Queen of Hearts update

With Valentines day right around the corner, now is the perfect time of year to search for all things heart shaped! I wandered the aisles of my nearest Dollar Store (great for picking up little bits and pieces for costumes!) and found heart garland. Little heart shaped bead things on a string. Each string containing several feet of evenly spaced tiny hearts! The first ones I found were smooth little hearts, but one garland had these wonderful details, with roses embossed into them. Digging through the pegs, I could find only the one!

I did clean the store out of their stock of heart garland...

The fancy garland will be reserved for the most prominent placement on the bodice, perhaps on the neckline, or down the front. The plain hearts will be arranged in the layers of the skirt, where they are further from the eye, and will weave in and out of the layers, hanging from the waistline.

As I have said before.... this dress with put dear ol' Queen Lizzie to shame!

Kobo Keeper

I have measured and planned my Kobo Cozy and have sketched out the rough shape of it. The outside will be a basic book jacket, but I will slip a piece of plastic sheet inside each cover to keep it stiff and protective.
The inside is more complicated and will keep the Kobo snug. Keeping tight to the outside dimension of the ereader, I drew a box and the flaps that will be attached to the back cover on three sides. The left side, next to the spine, will be loose with an extra piece that tucks behind the Kobo. I gave close examination of the rocket-scientist-engineered ones at the store and this is exactly how they do it.

Here is my sketch, including a closeup of the bottom section where I have a gap for the lonely button.

Pleated ribbon Watchband

I am very close to finishing the Watchband. The beading is almost done, and I have attached what I have to the ribbon.

Starting with the clasp end, I tied my clear line tightly to the loop on the clasp, with about an inch extra line on the short end. With the long end, I began threading the beads in the pattern I wanted, going up toward the watch end. I used 3 spacer bars, threading through the first hole in the bar. One of these spacers was the last "bead" in the line. I then looped back down into the second hole of the spacer and repeated my pattern (in reverse) going back toward the clasp. When I reached the clasp, I looped through it, and followed the same as the first back up to the watch end. In the end, I had three strings of beads, connected periodically with the spacer. After tightly tying knots in each end of my line, I took each one and carefully threaded it through the beads until it was completely hidden. This gives a secure knot with the loose ends neatly hidden inside the beads.

Repeated for the other side of the band.

Once both beaded sections were finished I used black thread to carefully stitch the beaded bands to the ribbon.

More next time on how I attached the face to the ribbon!

Kobo Keeper

I have recently entered the new-age of book reading! When e-readers first came out, I stamped my foot, pouted a little, and clutched my paper books tighter! What was the world coming to! The smell of a paperback, the feel of the pages in your hand, the handy size that is just right for carrying around. How can a techie little device be better?

With more and more books becoming available in electronic format, my book collection threatening to collapse onto my husband's head, and having seen one up close for the first time, I became curious.

My sister in law got a Kobo for Christmas, and I played around with it. With no instruction on how to use it, and having never touched one before, I actually found it very easy to navigate. When we returned home from our holidays, I checked out a few online reviews, and went to Chapters to see what all the fuss was about. After, I took a walk around the mall to think about it... $140 is a fair chuck of change, and the books are only a couple dollars cheaper in electronic format... saving money really isn't a factor here... But having (almost) any book I want available at the touch of a screen, and no increase to the already staggaring volume of boxes my books fill, I decided to take the plunge.

I carefully picked out a nice zippered pouch to keep my new Kobo in, and went to the counter to make my purchase. What a shock to find out that the little zippered pouch was $40!! Good grief! At that price, it had better be bullet proof! I left the store with just the solo Kobo. The next day, I went shopping again, in the hopes of finding a less expensive keeper for my Kobo. No such luck... Even for a thin slip cover, the lowest price I could find was $28... I may as well have spent for $40 for the zipper...

But wait... I have fabric... I have a sewing machine... I have a collection of zippers, buttons, velcro, snaps, and I know how to put it all together!! Jinkies! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to build a keeper (though the retail prices suggest otherwise...). I can have have a designer, one of a kind Kobo Keeper!

I know now what my next project will be.

Pleated Ribbon Watchband

Starting by folding my first pleat, I put a single run of stitches up the middle of the ribbon, folding each pleat as I went, and measuring it to my wrist until I had it the length I wanted. I then took the narrower ribbon and stitched it down the middle, so it held the pleats in place. I repeated with another ribbon so I have the two pieces of the band, one for each side of the face. They will be fastened on the inside of the wrist with a bracelet clasp.

Pleated ribbon watch band

My next project is a watch band. I have my sketch and all my pieces, and I am ready to start! Slowly over the spam of the week I purchased my items one by one (coupons are a great thing!) so this watch is going to cost 40% less! I'm not one of these crazy coupon people from that show on tv! I have an app on my phone for the craft store near my work and would drop in at lunch and scan my phone! So it was worth while!!

Back to the matter... Ahem.. For this project I have two widths of black ribbon, the watch face, a clasp, some black and white pearls, and silver spacers. The wider black ribbon will be the pleated ruffle under the thinner ribbon, and I will stitch the beads on top of that to give it some sparkle and interest. The watch itself is plain silver with a black face and silver numbers. This is going to he something I might wear more on weekends.

So, I haven't figured out yet how to format my posts yet on my phone, so my pics get dumped at the end, so here are my supplies and the sketch!

Night time photo

I decided to try my hand at night time photography. After picking up a tripod earlier this week, I have been super excited to try it! I managed to find out what the most used view point is for taking pictures of downtown. At this point, I am not trying to re-invent the wheel! When I get better with other aspects, I will start scouting new locations!

So, Rotary Park, just off Memorial Drive is one of several highly used sites for taking pictures of downtown Calgary from across the river. The parking lot was much further from the treeline than I thought, and I was glad that I wore my ugly winter boots that I usually keep in the trunk of my car for emergency! I had to trudge through the snow to get past the trees, and there I could set up my camera with a clear view across the river. This was the result!

I had the shutter open for 4 seconds, at 5.6f, iso500. It was cold and I forgot my flashlight, so I was having trouble seeing and pressing buttons, or I might have spent more time adjusting things and experimenting to see what would happen. I am not sure at this point if my settings were even close to ideal, but I think the end product turned out pretty nice. I plan to go out again to another location just down the street where I don't have to hike through snow! Hopefully, I can get there a little earlier and get some wonderful sunset colours. That might have to wait until the new year!

Now, I think I would like to curl up in a blanket with a hot cup of tea!